Space Based Solar Power

The concept of generating solar power from space has been interesting topic for quite some time. Various alternative energy companies are investing large amount of money to make this concept a success. There are several advantages of harnessing solar energy from space. Solar energy in space is ten times more than on the planet earth in certain distance. In space or apart from earth, there are no nights and no weather changes. The cost and damages will be less because of lack of bad weather conditions like storm, rain, humidity or friction.



But the main question to tackle is how to get the power from the solar panels that fixed on the orbiting platforms back to Earth? We can imagine about a method that convert it into radio frequency energy for transmission. We can install a receiving station on the earth, which then converts it back into electricity. But then we have to concern about the efficiency of the transmission and conversion.

Another major problem that scientists has to tackle is, the amount of energy required to produce and put these solar panels into space versus the amount of energy they may generate. Then they came up with the idea of Space Elevators, entirely a concept of an ingenious Sri Lankan, Arthur C. Clarke. So if this concept becomes a reality we can proud about ourselves as Sri Lankans.